


A nudge in the right direction

by lunaemoth



Series: December Images Prompts Challenge [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Challenge Response, F/M, Mutant Powers, Mutant!Darcy, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-27 17:35:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2701466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunaemoth/pseuds/lunaemoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the <a href="http://fuckyeahdarcylewis.tumblr.com/post/103058499362/mod-post-december-images-prompts-challenge">December Images Prompts Challenge</a> of fuckyeahdarcylewis.tumblr.com based on this <a href="http://media.tumblr.com/c16cad6dd312fd289795781c6a9abd21/tumblr_inline_nfaw7b5JO81qbvhdg.jpg">image</a> (Day 1) and <a href="http://media.tumblr.com/3daaf24ffd3ae622edf17beec8d6a0b0/tumblr_inline_nfawfsDXI51qbvhdg.jpg">this one</a> (Day 10).<br/> <br/><i>“She needed someone to push her on the right track.” </i><br/><i>“Right now, I’m pretty sure she just hates me something fierce.”</i><br/><i>“Well, she already hated me for taking her iPod, so welcome to the club.”</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I kinda failed the challenge since I didn't manage to do it about the December and holidays theme, but the idea wouldn't stop bugging me so here you go anyway...

She was fourteen when she realized she was different. They had a family picnic in a beautiful park with Greek statues, a lake and everything. Darcy had loved it. Then, her stupid brother went and fell in the lake. It was spring, a bit too chilly for letting him dry in the sun. Her parents insisted they had to go home. Darcy pouted, groaned and snarked at her brother. She fastened her seatbelt while they arranged a way for him to sit without soaking the car.

She was looking at one of the statue, a woman’s bust. Someone had put a plastic bag around it. It annoyed her a little bit more. She was staring, focused on the idea she should go and take it off.

One minute, she was in the car. The next, she was on the pedestal. She lost her balance and fell in a bush. She stood up quickly, sputtering and looking around her, wide-eyed, confused. Thankfully, there weren’t many people around and none were looking in her direction. An old man turned around when he heard her and she tried to give him her most innocent smile. He didn’t seem convinced. That probably had something to do with the leaves in her hair, on her sweatshirt and shoes.

“Darcy!”

She startled and spun around to see her father running towards her, her brother and mother gawking at her from the car.

“Darcy, what did you do?!” Her father asked as soon as he was close enough to not be heard by anyone else.

“I don’t know!” She whined, starting to panic. “I was looking at the statue, and then I was on the pedestal but there wasn’t any statue!”

“The statue is in the car, at your place,” her father told her in a hiss.

“What?!”

Mr Lewis looked around them, worried. When he was sure no one was looking at them, he whispered:

“Try to focus on it, on the statue and your place. Do just what you did before.”

She trusted him utterly, so she did exactly that… and was beside her brother a few seconds later. The statue was right where she was standing before, a few feet away from its pedestal. Her father came back quickly and ushered everyone inside. They left in a hurry.

“What the hell was that?” Charles finally asked, looking at Darcy as if she had sprouted a new head.

“Dad?” Darcy asked, hoping he’d have an explanation, something rational and reassuring. He was a teacher. He had all the answers.

“Teleportation. That was teleportation,” he said, gripping the wheel.

None of them were obtuse. They listened to the news, they knew some people had strange abilities. She was one of them. She was a mutant. And that terrified her parents (and herself too because if _they_ were scared, then, what should she feel?!), not because of what she could do, but because of what others would do if they knew.

So, she didn’t tell anyone.

She didn’t use it. She freaked out when she did it by instinct, being anxious and paranoid for days after such an event.

She hid and she hid well.

 

One day, she met Jane, a Norse god and a bunch of government agents. She was proud of herself for not freaking out so badly that she teleported accidentally (her taser helped, letting her think she could fight rather than flee). She was twitchy as hell around SHIELD agents but she hid it by grousing about her iPod. It worked. Of course it did, she had years of training in “hiding your mutation by acting like a chatterbox to deflect attention”.

Then a Destroyer appeared from nowhere. She did her part, save a dog or two, and once again tried and managed fairly well to not freak out. However, that was _before_ the Destroyer sent an energy blast next to her, making a building crumble right on her. She barely had the time to scream in fright and raise her hands: her instincts acted for her and she appeared on the other side of the street, a flower pot being smashed instead of her.

As always, her first reflex was to look around for witnesses. She blanched when she made eye contact with a man dressed in black and saw Coulson right behind him. She took a step backwards. The guy – was it a bow on his back? what the fuck? – raised his hands and said: “Calm down, we’re not anti-mutants.”

If there wasn’t an iPod stealer beside him, she might have believed him a little more.

Coulson surprised her by confirming: “We’ve no issues with you Miss Lewis. Let’s focus on surviving this, should we?”

Since another blast sounded out, it seemed quite reasonable. She still gave them a mistrustful stare before deciding that, fuck it, since she was busted, she was going to find Jane as quickly as possible. She teleported to the town entrance, switching with a sign next to the dinner.

Thor was truly the god of thunder, he heroically saved the day, kissed the girl, and went away (hurray! … he was so not winning the Best Boyfriend of the Year award).

When the SHIELD goons came to give back everything, Darcy made up a groceries run and skedaddle.

“Trying to hide from us?”

She startled and spun around to see bow guy – without his bow – and Coulson. She immediately thought about all the things she had located and with which she could switch to reappear far away from here – or on the other side of town at least.

“As we said, Miss Lewis,” Coulson said, “you don’t need to be afraid of us, we’re not against mutants as long as they do not present a danger to others.”

“Yeah? Well, I don’t fancy having a file with my name either.”

“Alright.”

“Uh… What?”

“Agent Barton and I are the only ones aware of your abilities. It can be kept out of records.”

“… What’s the catch?”

“Just promise us you won’t use your ability for any nefarious purposes.”

“What’re you afraid of? That I rob a bank with it?” she mocked.

“Among other things…”

“Buddy, my main objective in life is to keep quiet about it. Believe me, I won’t go and flaunt it to attract people like… you,” she said, gesturing to his suit.

Coulson seemed to ponder her answer before nodding. “Good, keep it that way.” He left, turning back to supervise his minions, but the bowman stayed and annoyed her with his staring.

“What?”

“Just thinking that it’s not often Coulson's so indulgent about the rules… trying to figure out why.”

“Maybe it’s my innocence?” She offered sarcastically, batting her eyelashes.

He nodded with a smirk. “Must be it. He has a thing for kids.”

She sputtered. “I’m twenty-two, you dick!”

“Yeah? Doesn’t seem like it. Fleeing from everything, including your own power…”

Pissed, Darcy strode forward to stop close enough to poke this dude’s chest (holy shit, he was cut, archery was good for him). “Don’t you dare judge me, you macaque! Do you know what happens to mutants caught in the act?”

“Yeah, I do. And you have the perfect ability to flee from all of it, but I bet you don’t have a clue about your own limits and capacities. You prefer to ignore it and pretend that you’re as boring as the next guy. Am I wrong?” He shifted and suddenly he didn’t seem like the funny inconspicuous guy she was poking just before. She tried to take a step back but his arms closed around her in a strong grip. She was stuck to him, but not in the good funny way. “Can you free yourself from that?”

She tried. She did. But it didn’t come naturally as it did usually. She felt a strain and she made a face with a pained whimper.

He let her go and she stumbled back quickly. He didn’t look apologetic. She glared.

“Like I said, just a kid,” he said with a shrug before turning back.

Breathing heavily, she sat on the first thing available – the ground – and glowered at his back until he disappeared from view. She brought her legs close to her chest and buried her face under her arms. She hadn’t even felt so bad when a fucking robot was threatening all of them.

Her phone rang in her pocket and she groaned, knowing Jane was calling her to tidy everything. She pulled her best “no-I’m-not-terrified-by-my-own-DNA” expression and stood up. She wiped her face with her sleeve and put her glasses back on. She had an astrophysicist to take care off.

She never noticed the two men staring at her from behind a car.

“You really think it’ll work?” Clint asked, doubtful.

“Yes,” Phil calmly answered. “She needed someone to push her on the right track.”

“Right now, I’m pretty sure she just hates me something fierce.”

“Well, she already hated me for taking her iPod, so... welcome to the club.”

“I don’t know what you see in her.”

“That’s why I’m the handler, I believe.”

“Hey, I was the one to recruit Natasha.”

“Yes, you managed to convince her… just like you convinced Miss Lewis to train her ability to be able to kick your ass next time she sees you.”

“Wha– Coulson!”


	2. It's time for payback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Based on [this picture](http://media.tumblr.com/3daaf24ffd3ae622edf17beec8d6a0b0/tumblr_inline_nfawfsDXI51qbvhdg.jpg) (Day 10).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This takes place in December 2013, after Thor 2 and before CA:TWS (and the fall of SHIELD).  
> For this story, the Avengers have been told that Phil Coulson isn't dead. Some characters from _Agents of SHIELD_ make an appearence but you don't need to watch the series to understand, they're just cameos.

“Darcy, can you get the flashlight?”

“Sure thing, boss.”

Darcy stood up from her stool and focused on the office’s trash can. She teleported in its place and started looking for the famous flashlight, never where you think you had put it the time before. Darcy could swear it had legs and moved when she had her back turned. It took her a few minutes but she finally found it under a cupboard. She went back to the trash can’s space (because Jane always complained when she put random objects in random places) and switched again.

“Here it–”

She stopped in the middle of her sentence when she realized that an unknown _someone_ was holding Jane by the arm and that someone was _armed_. She’ll admit later that she reacted impulsively, but she had for principle to never apologize when she acted to protect herself and her friends (ie.: the tasing Thor incident).

She immediately switched with Jane and, taking advantage of the man’s surprise, she elbowed him in the solar plexus before switching with her stool (it fell on his foot, oops), appearing behind Jane and immediately grabbing her. She barely realized there was someone else in the room, starting to say something (her name?). It didn’t matter. She teleported them in the neighborhood, a few streets over, putting an old tire in their place.

“Darcy! Where are we?” Jane immediately asked, looking around the alley.

“Somewhere no-one’ll look for us. Who the hell was that?” Darcy asked, hugging her arms: they didn’t have their coats and it was freezing (December in London, hello).

“SHIELD.”

“SHIELD? Those iPod-and-research stealers? And you trust them?”

“I trusted the ones that Thor trusts.”

“Who?”

“Those you totally ignored.”

“Well, that dude with the gun freaked me out! Sorry, if my first reaction was to get you out of danger.”

“I don’t mind. I didn’t like the way he grabbed me,” Jane admitted. She smirked. “You hit him good.”

Darcy smirked back and relaxed a bit, happy that Jane was on her side.

“Now, let’s get back there, I don’t want them alone near my work.”

Darcy rolled her eyes but obeyed, taking them back to the lab/Jane’s mom’s house. She immediately realized who Jane was talking about.

“You,” she shouted while pointing at the one and only Clint Barton aka Hawkeye the Avenger. “And you,” she added at the sight of Agent Coulson the damned. “Aren’t you supposed to be dead?”

“A long story,” Coulson answered with a placid smile. “It’s nice to see you again Miss Lewis.”

“Dude, that’s so not mutual. Your buddy freaked me out. Does he know that in London you can’t wave your gun like candy?” She asked, pointing at the brown-haired giant glaring at her and trying to hide the way he rubbed his chest.

“Forgive Agent Ward, we’re in a hurry and he hasn’t the best manners,” Coulson said with a bit of mischief.

“Yeah, that’s kinda a habit in your team,” she noted, glaring at Barton in passing.

“As I was saying before you appeared, we need to talk to Ms Foster.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll bring coffee, I guess.”

She teleported to the kitchen, glad to have a good excuse to stay away from Agent Barton.

Noises made her look up. Vega the cat was climbing on the curtain’s door, probably freaked out by her sudden arrival in place of his dish. He lied down on the top of the half-opened door. She raised her eyebrows at him. “How the hell did you manage that?” She suddenly squinted, suspicious. “Are you a ninja mutant agent?” He looked at her wide-eyed. She snorted. “Yeah, I know, ridiculous. Whatever. When you’ll try to climb down, I’ll laugh at you.”

She busied herself with the familiar actions of making coffee, trying to calm down despite the nervous mess seeing those two agents had made of her.

With the tray in hands, she had to walk (she had tried teleporting with delicate things requiring balance, it wasn’t a really good idea) to the lab/Jane’s playroom. When she stepped in, she froze and tilted her head to the two women, one Asian and one red-haired (the Black Widow? Holy shit, yes, it was the Black Widow! Don’t spill the coffee, Darcy!), who had appeared in the meantime (where did they pop from?!).

She walked to the table and put the tray down before saying “I’ll get two more cups” and teleporting back to the kitchen. Vega, apparently happy on his perch, stared at her attentively. With two cups in hands, she looked back at him.

“Playing a prank on an Avenger. Bad or really bad?” Vega meowed. She nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, who cares? He’s a dick anyway!”

She closed her eyes to focus. She’ll need to be quick; it’ll be a little tricky. Not much more than what she had done today but then she had the adrenaline to help. She breathed in and teleported to the lab. On her left, the Black Widow startled (yahoo!). She quickly switched with Coulson (to escape a knife or two), who was close to the table talking to Jane.

Darcy immediately put the cups on the table before switching back with Hawkeye, right where she had left him in the kitchen. It didn’t take her more than a few dozen seconds.

She was now alone in the kitchen, except for Vega who was looking at her as if she was crazy (uh… maybe). Darcy raised her arms and danced at a melody only she could hear. She did it! Eheheh… mh… They hadn’t much milk anymore, maybe she should go buy some? Go for a walk… the long way… a few hours…

The door moved, Vega meowing in distress at the shift. Shit, no time to run. She immediately opened the fridge to appear busy (no, she wasn’t gloating a few seconds ago, absolutely not).

“Do you feel better?”

Barton. Of course. She looked up with her best innocent expression, considered pretending she didn’t know what he was talking about for a second, before she held her chin up and answered: “Yep.”

He snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, well done. No one saw it coming.”

She totally preened at that. She closed the fridge and leaned against the counter. “So…”

“So?” He raised an eyebrow at her, challenging her.

Years of resentment came back quickly. She teleported behind him and put all her weight on his shoulders. “So, I’m not a kid anymore, admit it.”

He chuckled. “And yet, you still act like one. How did you appear behind me, kid? You didn’t switch with anything.”

“Ahah. I won’t tell you my secret. Just admit I’m good.” Her arms wrapped around his neck. He grabbed them to loosen their hold.

“You improved, I admit.”

She hid her grin behind his back. Instead of asking her secret again as she expected (she had her answer ready, about how she hadn’t promised to say anything), he grabbed her arms and used one of his ninja move. Before she could react, she was in his arms, her back pressed against his torso. His grip was firm. It was very reminiscent of _that_ time.

“Tell me,” he whispered in her ear.

She shivered and stopped struggling for a second, thinking quickly. She sighed. “Fine. I switched with the dust in the air.” It was harder. She had discovered that when an object was similar in weight to hers it was easier. Dust was complex and tiring, but she had kept that trick just for him.

“Nicely done… kid.”

She gritted her teeth… and teleported them both in the lab.

Just like she thought, Thor – that she had heard opening the back door and walking to the library, he wasn’t really discreet – was there. She turned her puppy eyes on him. “Thoooor, your friend is mean to me,” she whined.

Barton immediately startled and let her go under the frowning gaze of the Thunder god (he knew Darcy was jesting, but he hadn’t missed the way Barton was holding her either). Darcy flicked her hair over her shoulder and beamed. Coulson was looking at her with an amused smile, Jane was rolling her eyes and all the other SHIELD agents seemed to be divided between exasperation (the brown-haired giant, definitely) or interest (the two women? Maybe? Did they take lessons from each other in impassiveness?).

Darcy turned around, winked at Barton and went to take her usual place behind Jane, safe at Thor’s side. Since Agent Barton apparently wanted to play the kid card, she opened her stash of candies and chose a lollipop. That didn’t escape his attention. He glared. She smirked.

 

That was fun and all, but it was the most she had ever done in so little time. She was exhausted and the boring talk going on didn’t help. She barely understood what the problem was and just as quickly forgot. She finally gave up and murmured to Jane: “I’m going to take a nap.” She must have sounded as tired as she felt because Jane took the time to look up before nodding.

Darcy walked out. In the hall, a meow caught her attention and she rolled her eyes. “I knew you wouldn’t manage to climb down,” she muttered. She shook her head and went to the kitchen. She offered her hands to Vega, letting him smell her to remind him she was the one who feed him and not just the crazy girl who popped at the place of his food. On tip-toe, she managed to grab him and get him off his perch without anyone getting hurt.

She patted him fondly and walked in the living room, where she crashed and lied on the couch, the cat on her belly. She stared at the Christmas tree she had decorated a few days ago, admiring the painted balls until her eyes closed on their own.

 

When she woke up, there was a blanket on her and Vega had disappeared. She huffed, shifted on her side and flailed around. Black Widow was sitting in the armchair and Hawkeye on the armrest. They were staring at her and it was _creepy_.

“Seriously?” She groused at them, straightening up. She listened carefully but realized there wasn’t much sound in the house. It was dark outside but the clock only said it was seven in the evening. “Where is everyone?”

“Coulson left with his team,” Barton answered once he stopped smirking at her reaction. “Dr Foster and Thor went to buy food. Apparently, you’re the only one able to cook in here.”

“Yes, I am. And why are you staring at me like creeps?”

“Natasha wanted me to make introductions,” he said like it pained him greatly. “So, Natasha this is Darcy Lewis and Darcy this is Natasha Romanoff, alias Black Widow. Here, done.”

“Uh, hi?” Darcy said with a wave, suddenly a little cowed by the red-haired’s interest.

Miss Romanoff just smiled at her nicely and said: “Tell me what Clint did to annoy you.” Which made Barton groaned. So, of course, Darcy told her _everything_.

“It was Coulson’s idea!” He said for his defense at the end.

“Of course it was,” Natasha answered, shrugging. She smiled at Darcy. “I like your revenge. Well done.”

Darcy beamed. She had worked a lot since New Mexico. After the mortification she had felt, the anger had come and then the realization that he might have been right (it annoyed her and she will never admit it aloud). So, she had taken a deep breath and told Jane. Jane had looked at her closely, asked for a demonstration and then said: “Why didn’t you tell me sooner? Do you know how fascinating it is?”. And when Darcy had asked her for help in training, she had exclaimed: “Of course! We’ve to see everything you can do, how it works, your limits…” Her scientist, logical, analytic brain had been totally on board. A lot of her suggestions and questions had pushed Darcy to realize she barely knew anything about her own capacities. From then on, she had trained and experienced a lot with it. That she could do it without fearing reproaches helped a lot.

Then, Thor had come back and it seemed silly to hide her capacities from him. The first time she had teleported to get him a towel after his work-out, he had tilted his head and simply asked her why she hadn’t done that sooner (the explanation about anti-mutants hadn’t been an easy one, Thor had been angry against those who had pushed her in hiding).

Erik… Erik had freaked out a little bit to be honest, but when everyone assured him she was still the same Darcy and not an underling of Loki in disguise, he had calmed down and asked for tea (do you sense a theme, here? Yeah, she was totally the fetcher). She tried not to teleport too often next to him: he was spooked easily.

.

When Thor and Jane came back with Italian food, Darcy and Natasha were busy sharing ideas about the way she could use her abilities. Barton was a little terrified they were ganging up on him (because he’ll be the guinea pig, of course) but he liked to offer prank ideas (hoping to distract Darcy, probably).

Darcy went to bed early, even though she really wanted to stay and admire the Black Widow a little longer (unfortunately, they weren’t staying for Christmas, how sad was that? Imagine the holidays! The fun they would have at annoying Hawkeye!).

She ran into Barton in the hall. He smiled softly at her tired face. He caught a lock of her hair and put it back behind her shoulder, away from her eyes. “Good night, kiddo, you did well.”

“Not a kid,” she grumbled but, when he kissed her hair, she didn’t resist either.

“No, you’re not,” he admitted. “But I like your childish spirit all the same. People are always too serious.”

“Weren’t you serious last time we met?”

“There’s a difference between being serious about protecting yourself and others – and that includes being as good as you can be – and being serious all the time. You learned the difference. You protected Jane and yourself today, you did great.”

She nodded softly and poked at his ribs.

“If you’re being mean to me again, I’ll teleport you in the middle of the ocean and leave you there.”

“I don’t think I heard that one. Can you do that?”

“Not sure… Something to add at the long list of things I have to test on you.” She smirked at him.

“Aww, come on, aren’t you going to forgive me anytime soon?”

“Well, you don’t seem very regretful, you didn’t give me any gift to say sorry and you didn’t do any–”

He interrupted her by a butterfly kiss on the corner of her lips.

“Sorry,” he said with a little lopsided smile.

She blinked. “Uh… o-okay, you’re forgiven.”

“Great. Good night!”

“Y-yeah, good night.”

She watched him leave, walked in her bedroom and leaned against the door for a few seconds, trying to reboot her brain.

“I’ve been had,” she concluded before banging lightly her head against the wall. She touched her lips reverently.

Oh, well. She supposed she could forgive him.

She could brag to her grand-children she had been kissed by an Avenger after all!

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think. =)
> 
>  **NB:** I'm french and this isn't beta-ed. If you noticed any mistakes, please send me a comment with the way to correct it and I'd be pleased to do so.  
>  You can find me on tumblr : lunaemoth.tumblr.com


End file.
